In the Opinion Pages of the NY Times today, Albert A. Foer, "a lawyer formerly with the Federal Trade Commission [who] is president of the American Antitrust Institute," writes that:

AT this moment, all over the United States, consumers are buying tickets to games, concerts and other live events under the impression that they have the right to give away, donate or resell the tickets they purchase. They assume that they can do so whenever and with whomever they wish and (as long as they don't violate the few remaining laws against scalping) at whatever price they choose.

But those consumers may be mistaken. In recent years ticket sellers, along with promoters, producers, artists and sports teams, have increasingly taken a new approach to selling tickets. This approach, marketed in the name of innovation, convenience and protecting purchasers, restricts those fundamental freedoms long rightly taken for granted.

The practice is so-called paperless ticketing...

Read the whole article at the NY Times, including the part where he admits that "The American Antitrust Institute, of which I am president, received a modest contribution, in the form of sponsorship of a conference last year, from an advocacy group financed in part by StubHub."

"Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day." - Ron Paul

"But in reality, the restrictions represent an effort to control the secondary-ticketing market and stifle competition from independent resellers and resale marketplaces like StubHub, where tickets are often sold for LESS than face value."

"The conclusion: restrictive paperless-ticket practices depart from bedrock market principles by unjustifiably limiting consumer choice and suppressing free competition. They also might violate federal and state antitrust and consumer-protection laws. And they may warrant legislation to protect the market and consumers."

This is absolutely hilarious. Talk about paid commentary, for fuck's sake. The whole ticketing complex is so fucking dirty and corrupt, it's like the tobacco industy at this point. Jesus H. Christ!

The "right to scalp" is pretty ridiculous, but the fact that people think they're safer in the hands of enormous corporations than dealing with the occasional scalper proves how fucking most Americans are.

Honestly, scalping isn't a big deal. If it wasn't for scalpers, once a show sold out, you would not be able to get tickets. Sure, you might luck out and find a guy who had conflicting plans and had to give up his tickets, but otherwise sold out would more or less mean 'sold out,' as in 'you're never going to get into this show because no more tickets are available.'

majority of the time scalpers inaccurately gauge demand and end up unloading a bulk of tickets the day-of-show for face value or less. you just need to learn how to think logically and play the game alongside them; don't let your emotions lure you into paying 10x face for a ticket.

11:02, good luck with that. Front floors are going to be hard to come by and way too expensive to make a good enough profit. The crappy seats will in overabundance, because too many people will think exactly like you and buy up t1ckets solely for the purpose of reselling.

I have no problem with people scalping. What I do have a problem with, is when brokers have an unfair advantage by having an "in" with someone on the inside (promoter, agent, venue, artist/management), or when they use bots that the general public has no access to.

In 2009, I bought 15th row for Paul McCartney at Citi Field for half price the night of. I also could have had my pick of crappy seats for $10, that were in abundance from desperate people trying to unload their tickets.

Well, China is going to own all of the Brazilian and Canadian oil because this fuckwad is vetoing the oil pipeline that we need for jobs, industry, and to keep inflation from collapsing our economy. And we're worried about concert ticks and their delivery.

Ron Paul is just unconventional in his thinking. It's his followers that are psychopathic. They're almost as embarrassing as Obama worshipers leading up to the '08 election. Pure creepy and cultish stupidity.

1:29...Marcus Garvey was a way cooler Black leader. So was Malcolm X early on when he was with the NOI.

1:40...MLK was a communist, he was a plagiarist, he had a weak spot for White prostitutes, the list goes on... Maybe in todays society those things constitute a hero, but to me it makes you a scumbag. He set back the Black nationalist movement. Instead of preaching segregation and the truth about the devil, he promoted mixing and integrating with Yacub's children. I spit on his memory and any self respecting Black man would do the same.

Every candidate as well as Obama is a pawn to the big banks and controlled by Lobbyists. The main stream media is trying everything to slander Ron Paul an his message because it is scary to those in power. (see the The trillion dollar military industrial complex, the war on drugs, big pharm, etc.)
Open your eyes... You are being brainwashed by propaganda. RON PAUL 2012!

I can't quite tell if this particular Ron Paul supporter is a parody or not. It isn't that he sounds any different than the rest of them, it's just that it's so easy to mimic the spell that they're under.

It's not brainwashing... It's called facts.
Look at Newt/Romney/Obama and see how they have done nothing to restore this country and simply pander to big banks. Then look at Ron Pauls voting record and his stances and then you will see who is being brainwashed you dummy. RON PAUL 2012!

You're brainwashed if you think Ron Paul is any different than these fools. Doesn't matter what he is for or against nothing will get accomplished in Washington with congress etc. Keep dreaming though MICKEY MOUSES 2012!

If Ron Paul were President, he'd be as powerless as Obama; Congress would not pass a fraction of the radical things he wants to do. I'm glad for his ideas though; he has people thinking, which is good for a change.

Ok, enough about Ron Paul.
Scalping - paperless t1ckets is a bad idea. Bad for the consumer, because you must attend the show; you can't buy tickets for your kids or as a gift for someone else, without attending too. Also, in the end it's ok for people to buy up tickets and resell them. In the end, speculators typically tend to overbuy, and end up selling them for less than face anyway.
What needs to be addressed, is the fairness of distribution. Find a better way to prevent bots, and create transparency via t1cket system audits so that t1cket holds by the venue/agent/promoter/artist are not holding too many seats.